Apartheid, Inequality and Political Unrest In South Africa IV

Christianity was integral to the formation of the Apartheid state. Since the Dutch brought Christianity to the land of South Africa it has taken numerous forms, often times coming from a combination of the church and local customs.
Prophets and seers were common throughout South African history, such as Siener Van Rensburg, who convinced many Boers to revolt against the Smuts government. Enoch Mgijima a prophet who would play an important role in the downfall of Smuts and the rise of what would evolve into a proletariat Afrikaner State.

Topics covered-
Bulhoek Massacre
The Rand Rebellion
The Nationalist Party Rises
South Africa In World War II

Transcript

APARTHEID 4

-Religion is the Opium of the masses-

Karl Marx.

The decades long pro-apartheid regime in South Africa was heavily supported by Christian denominations, specifically the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC)

The DRC found many ways to justify segregation using the bible. For example Genesis 11: 1-9 the famous story of the tower of Babel, Where god punishes humans for their blasphemy by dividing them into linguistic groups, unable to understand each other.

 The DRC came to the conclusion, “If god wanted a separation of the races and linguistic partition then segregation must be good.”

The church leaders also proposed corrupted interpretations of the bible to justify segregation, an example of this was (Mark 12:31) “Love thy neighbor as thyself”. 

This commandment establishes an ethical mandate for Christians to treat others at least as well as they would treat themselves, if not better. Since this is what God commanded Christians to do, the DRC leadership reasoned that society would function better if everyone followed this commandment. However, this ethical imperative seems to conflict with the policy of apartheid, which clearly favors white South Africans and plays to their self-interest. The DRC, however, framed this commandment in relation to other texts from the New Testament to justify racial separation. The leaders wrote, The life and viability of man and of a people is a gift of God which should be protected and treated with a sense of responsibility (cf. e.g. Paul who consistently states his case in front of the authorities concerned). It is therefore perfectly permissible within the context of the second commandment for a person or his people to protect or safeguard their own life or existence, provided the interests of others are not sacrificed to self-interest. Such as how Jan Smuts famously stated in his speech in Britain, Apartheid was viewed as a justified idea based on self preservation.

Chrisitanty played a crucial role in the development of the union of South Africa as well as the apartheid state. Between the white minority the vast majority were religious and still a large number prescribe to the Christian church today, The British are Anglican and the Afrikaners Dutch Reformist. Statistically about 90% of Black South Africans are labeled as “Christian” but this is a bit misleading. Black South Africans belong to Zion churches, which are more of an American-style charismatic evangelical tradition, with faith healing, talking in tongues, and other non-mainstream Christian beliefs.

which are probably 50% Christian or less, and are much more African traditional religion (ancestors) based.

Due to colonialism then apartheid, basically the only way a Black South African could be educated was through missionaries, so it is a large part of the culture, particularly among privileged Black South Africans.

NELSON MANDELA for example,

Both his parents were illiterate, but being a devout Christian, his mother sent him to a local Methodist school when he was about seven. He was able to avoid a menial labor job such as farming or working in a mine wit his education. He eventually became a lawyer and then the first Democratically elected South African President.

The Apartheid system, as well as resistance to it, was both a political and theological matter. The heavily religious Afrikaners used Christianity to justify Apartheid. 

 Insert SPEECH- Dr. Khalid Al-Mansour

Christianity also played a significant role in the events that brought Jans Smuts liberal government and the more racially conservative to power

In April 1907, An African Christian preacher named Enoch Mgijima had his first vision in which an angel said to him: "I have sent you to these people because I am worried that although they worship me, they are not honest in their worship of me. I want you to worship me according to your old traditions." After ignoring the vision, Mgijima continued his preaching and acquired a large following as an evangelist.

In 1910 Mgijima saw a bright and glowing light in the sky. He became convinced that this was god sending him a message and his vision had been confirmed. To him, this was a sign that God was angry with humans and that they should return to their Old Testament beliefs. 

In reality what he saw was Hailey’s Comet. 

In 1912 Mgijima broke away from his church and started a new sect. His embers were known as the “Isrealites”.

Enoch Mgijima, the prophet had more visions, one, in 1912 prophetically saw the end of the world, which would end by Christmas and would be followed by 30 days of rain. As a result of his prediction his followers, the Israelites stopped working their fields and started to join him on his communal living settlement.

the end did not come. Over the years his visions became more intense and began to depict more and more violence

In 1914 he had a vision of two goats fighting and as a baboon watched nearby. He interpreted it as a war of whites where African blacks will not be involved in that war. This was later to be universally known as the First World War, 

Due to his radical visions his followers the Isrealiest began squatting on an area of land. Located on the edge of a Bantustan, Called Bulhoek. The group grew massive, to about 3,000 people, food supplies soon ran out and the Isrealites began raiding nearby farms.

This led to Prime Minister Smuts getting involved, where in early 1921 he approached the congregation with an 800 strong police force demanding the group disperse. The Natives refused, and about 500 of them showed up with spears and knobkerries. Fighting broke out resulting in the Bulhoek massacre

The ANC opposed the governments actions in Bulhoek stating that the government failed to protect and respect the Isrealites religious beliefs. The Natives Land Act of 1913, where the Bantustan systems were set up was proved to be impracticable. It created much controversy for the Smuts Government.

Another blow to the smuts government happened the next year, when a group of White gold miners went on strike resulting in the Rand Rebellion

Following a drop in the world price of gold from 130 shillings (£6 10s) per fine troy ounce in 1919 to 95s/oz (£4 15s) in December 1921, A direct result of the global depression the world was experiencing from WW1

Companies tried to cut their operating costs by decreasing wages, and by weakening the colour bar 

The colour bar being a social system in which black and other non-white people are denied access to the same rights, opportunities, and facilities as white people.

They did this to enable the promotion of racially cheapened black miners to skilled and supervisory positions

This was not to be accepted by the White ruling elite. The Communist party of South Africa rose up in defiance, 

As with most things in South Africa, their narrative took a racist doctrine. Communists who are normally known for their anti-Racist message took a very racist slogan "Workers of the world, unite and fight for a white South Africa!" 

They took over the Cities Benoni, Brakpan and even some suburbs of Johannasburg. Initiating several pogroms against blacks.

Prime Minister Jan Smuts crushed the rebellion with 20,000 troops, artillery, tanks, and bomber aircraft. By this time the rebels had dug trenches across Fordsburg Square and the air force tried to bomb but missed and hit a local church. However, the army's bombardment finally overcame them. In the end 153 people were killed.

The Apartheid State

Smuts had angered South African nationalists by his moderate stance on South African independence from the British Empire. As well as this the crushing of the Rand rebellion and to a lesser extend the Bulhoek massacre led to Smuts earning the enmity of the labour vote.

A coalition was formed between the 2nd and 3rd largest South African parties, the National Party and Labour Party. The National Party was an Afrikaner National party first and foremost. It focused on the advancement of the Afrikaner population even above the large White British minority. Botha and Smuts had developed a “One Stream” policy that sought to blend the British and Afrikaner populations into an amalgamated culture. This however was rejected by first minister JBM Hertzog who thought of himself as 1st an Afrikaner,

Hertzog,  was one of the Bittereinders in the 2nd Boer war, Those who stubbornly wanted to continue fighting the British, even if it meant the complete destruction of the Boer peoples.

 Throughout his life he encouraged the development of Afrikaner culture, determined to prevent Afrikaners from being influenced by British culture. 

Earlier In 1913, Hertzog led the secession of the Old Boer and anti-British section from the South African Party. (the Party of Smuts and Botha) leading to a two-streams policy of division between even the whites of South Africa.

This coalition between the National Party and Labour Party was created in part out of a fear of Smuts liberal views on race, the minority whites feared that if blacks were enfranchised they would be overwhelmed. Such feelings were amplified by the great depression which was beginning to creep over the world.

Smuts' earlier actions caused a political backlash, and in the 1924 elections his South African Party lost to This new coalition which would go on to create a welfare state for the white Proletariat.

According to one historian, "the government of 1924, which combined Hertzog’s NP with the Labour Party, oversaw the foundations of an Afrikaner welfare state".

This welfare state helped Whites, (and to a lesser degree the colourds) quite a bit, they introduced numerous laws that recognized trade unions and reinforced the colour bar. A Department of Labour was established and it laid down minimum wages for unskilled workers, although it excluded domestic servants, public servants and farm labourers (an issue that still plagues south Africa to this day. 

It established a wage board that regulated pay for certain kinds of work, regardless of racial background (although whites were the main beneficiaries of the legislation) 

It also established an old age pension for white workers, Colourds also were included but they received only 70% of whites.

Urban White tenants were protected against eviction, at a time when housing was in short supply.

White women were enfranchised.

The postal service was also made permanent

The majority of these acts specifically helped white and to a lesser extent coloured people.

However a series of pre-apartheid Racial segregation policies also were enacted between Hertzogs victory and 1939 when the world was in the midst of World War 2.

 the Urban Areas Act (1923) introduced residential segregation and provided cheap labour for industry led by white people, the Colour Bar Act (1926) prevented black mine workers from practicing skilled trades, the Native Administration Act (1927) made the British Crown, rather than paramount chiefs, the supreme head over all African affairs,[31][better source needed] the Native Land and Trust Act (1936) complemented the 1913 Native Land Act and, in the same year, the Representation of Natives Act removed previous black voters from the Cape voters' roll and allowed them to elect three whites to Parliament.

The 1934 Slums Act is passed, giving municipalities and the government the authority to acquire slum properties.

This act "was applied for demolition of various inner but dilapidated suburbs ... The displaced Black populations were largely rehoused in segregated mono- racial municipal housing estates on the urban periphery" (Christopher 1994: 38). Thus, by proclaiming certain non-White areas as 'slums', these areas could be condemned and people moved with overtly 'non-racial' motives.

 The Representation of Natives Act no 16 of 1936 is passed, the first of a series of laws to diminish the voting rights of non-Whites in the Cape Province.[1]

With this act, the small black elite - most blacks never had the vote - were removed from the common rolls on which they had been able to register since 1854. Chiefs, local councils, urban advisory boards and election committees in all provinces were to elect four whites to the senate by a system of block voting. The act also created a Native Representative Council of six white officials, four nominated and twelve elected Africans.[

COLOURDS

The Colourds of South Africa have always found themselves in a unique position. You might have noticed they were given more rights than the Black native populace. The Colourds have largely lost their identity even today many Colourds Identify as Black or Colourd. Trevor Noah himself would identify as Black not Colourd, Walter Sisulu one of Nelson Mandelas freedom fighters would also Identify as Black not colourd even though he is of mixed Acnestry.

Largely descending from sexual unions between Khoisan or cape malay with white European descendants. They were 2nd class citizens in the cape (the Western portion of South Africa) where they larely made up

 they most commonly speak Afrikaans, and a comparison can be made to them and the Blacks of the United States. 

The establishment of the Union of South Africa gave Coloured people the franchise, although by 1930 they were restricted to electing White representatives. They conducted frequent voting boycotts in protest. Such boycotts may have contributed to the victory of the National Party in 1948. They carried out an apartheid programme that stripped Coloured people of their remaining voting powers.

Today in South Africa they face high levels of incarceration, The Numbers gangs, 26s 27s and 28s are the hardest and most feared criminals of South Africa.

They similarly to the Indians as well as the blacks have had higher and lower levels of political power over the 19th and 20th centuries. However they still were treated as 2nd class citizens, 

Coloured people as well as Indians and blacks, were subject to forced relocation. For instance, the government relocated Coloured from the urban Cape Town areas of District Six, which was later bulldozed. Other areas they were forced to leave included Constantia, Claremont, Simon's Town. Inhabitants were moved to racially designated sections of the metropolitan area on the Cape Flats. Additionally, under apartheid, Coloured people received education inferior to that of Whites. It was, however, better than that provided to Black South Africans.

Trevor Noah Colourd prison story

scholars tend to define Coloured as "mixed race," but that's only one of many groups that were categorized as Coloured. The majority were Cape Malay and were descended from slaves brought from Malaysia.

The Department of Social Welfare was established in 1937 as a separate government department to deal with social conditions.[5] There was increased expenditure on education for both Whites and Coloureds. Spending on Coloured education rose by 60%, which led to the number of Coloured children in school growing by 30%.[6] Grants for the blind and the disabled were introduced in 1936 and 1937 respectively,[11] while unemployment benefits were introduced in 1937.[12] That same year, the coverage of maintenance grants was extended.

Foreign policy of Hertzog - 

The Hertzog government strongly promoted the independence of South Africa from the British Empire. In 1925 Dutch was replaced as the second official language with Afrikaans, cementing the Afrikaner culture. A few years later they dropped the colonial flag and adopted a new one, with the Dutch Oranje, Blanje, Blou, Orange white and blue as a background and the 2 dutch republics as well as the British flag in front.

These moves largely cemented the Afrikaner culture

Foreign PoLICY

Hertzog and his government favored a policy of distance from the British empire, he and the vast majority of his cabinet were Germanophile

They wanted to revise the international system set up by the Treaty of Versailles in favour of lessening the burdens imposed on Germany.[18]: 297  Hertzog's cabinet in the 1930s was divided between a pro-British group led by the Anglophile Smuts, and a pro-German group led by Oswald Pirow, the openly pro-Nazi and anti-Semitic minister of defence, with Hertzog occupying a middle position.

Though Hertzog was not as pro-German as the faction led by Pirow, he tended to see Nazi Germany as a "normal state" and as a potential ally, unlike the Soviet Union which Hertzog saw as a threat to the West.

Alongside that, Hertzog saw France as the main threat to peace in Europe, viewing the Treaty of Versailles as an unjust and vindictive peace treaty, and argued the French were the principal trouble-makers in Europe by seeking to uphold the Versailles Treaty.[18]: 303–304  Hertzog argued that if Adolf Hitler had a belligerent foreign policy, it was only because the Treaty of Versailles was intolerably harsh towards Germany, and if the international system was revised to take account of Germany's "legitimate" complaints against Versailles, then Hitler would become a moderate and reasonable statesman.[18]: 301  When Germany remilitarized the Rhineland in March 1936, Hertzog informed the British government that there was no possibility of South Africa taking part if Britain decided to go to war over the issue and, in the ensuing crisis, South African diplomats took a very pro-German position, arguing that Germany was justified in violating the Treaty of Versailles by remilitarizing the Rhineland.

Charles Theodore Te Water

The Chanak crisis of 1922 when Canada refused to join Britain when it was on the brink of war with Turkey revealed that Dominion support for the "mother country" could not be automatically taken for granted as it had been assumed in London until then. As such, the views of the Dominion high commissioners in London were highly influential with the Chamberlain government during the Sudetenland crisis of 1938 and the Danzig crisis of 1939.[48]

Hertzog in a letter to the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in March 1938, which stated that South Africa would not fight in any "unjust" wars, and that if Britain choose to go to war over the events in Czechoslovakia, then South Africa would remain neutral.[18]: 3030  On 22 March 1938, Hertzog sent Charles Theodore TE Water a telegram stating that South Africa would not under any circumstances go to war with Germany in defence of Czechoslovakia, and stating that he regarded Eastern Europe as being rightfully in Germany's sphere of influence.[

In another letter in the spring of 1938, Hertzog noted that he was "exhausted" by France, and that he wanted Chamberlain to tell the French that the Commonwealth, and South Africa in particular, would be neutral if France went to war with Germany because of a German attack on Czechoslovakia.[18]: 304  When te Water reported to Hertzog on 25 May 1938 that the British foreign secretary, Lord Halifax, had promised him that the British government was applying diplomatic pressure on Czechoslovakia to resolve the dispute over the Sudetenland in Germany's favour, and was pressuring France to abandon its alliance with Czechoslovakia, Hertzog stated his approval.[18]: 305  On 14 September 1938, te Water complained to Lord Halifax about the "astonishing episode" of Britain drifting to war with Germany over the Sudetenland issue, stating that as far as South Africa was concerned, Germany was in the right in demanding that mostly German-speaking Sudetenland be allowed to join Germany, and Czechoslovakia and France was in the wrong, the first by refusing the German demands, and the second by having an alliance with Czechoslovakia that encouraged Prague to resist Berlin.[18]: 312 

Jan Smuts after his party’s defeat in 1924 retired politics and began a career in academia, he returned to politics in 1934 as deputy prime minister under the Hertzog administration. His party merged with Hertzog’s and created the United Party. 
 The United Party as its name suggests was a combination of the enfranchised peoples of South Africa, The British, The Afrikaners and The Colourds who still had enfranchisement at this time. 

They were liberal compared to the Afrikaner National Party, being far more liberal on the topic of race.

Bolstering off of the Nazi’s rise in Europe, ANtismenetism was growing, Smuts was against this. He spoke out against rising antisemtism and was even a vocal proponent of the creation of a Jewish State. 

His Views on race seemed to be liberalizing with time, he said “The Idea that the natives must all be removed and confined in their own Kraals is in my opinion the greatest nonsense I have ever heard.”

Smuts and Hertzog clashed over which direction South Africa should go, A German one or British one…

In the middle of September 1938 Britian was on the verge of war with Germany.

Hertzog favoured neutrality and Smuts was for intervention on Britain's side.[18]: 309  On 15 September 1938, Hertzog presented the cabinet with a compromise plan that South Africa would declare neutrality in the event of war, but would be neutral in the most pro-British way possible.[18]: 328  The cabinet was divided. The Nazi-loving Pirow favoured South Africa allying itself with Germany to fight against Britain. On the other hand, Smuts favoured South Africa allying with Britain and going to war with Germany, and threatened to use his influence with the MPs loyal to himself to bring down the government if Hertzog did declare neutrality.[18]: 328  On 19 September 1938, as a part of a peace plan to resolve the crisis, Britain offered to guarantee Czechoslovakian territorial sovereignty if the latter agreed to allow the Sudetenland to join Germany, which led te Water to inform Lord Halifax that South Africa was utterly opposed to being part of the guarantee, and advised Britain against promising one, through he later changed his position, saying that South Africa would "guarantee" Czechoslovakia if it was backed by the League of Nations, and if Germany signed a non-aggression pact with Czechoslovakia.[18]: 316 

On 23 September 1938, at the Bad Godesberg summit, Hitler rejected the Anglo-French plan for transferring the Sudetenland to Germany as insufficient, thus putting Europe on the brink of war.[18]: 312–313  In a telegram to Chamberlain on 26 September 1938, Hertzog wrote that the differences between the Anglo-French and German positions were "mainly of method" and that, "as the issue was one of no material substance, but merely involves a matter of procedure for arriving at a result to which it is common cause between disputants Germany is entitled", there was no possibility of South Africa going to war over the issue.[18]: 313  Even after Hitler's belligerent speech on Berlin on the same day, proclaiming that he would still attack Czechoslovakia unless Prague settled its disputes with Poland and Hungary by 1 October 1938, Hertzog, in a telegram to te Water, wrote that he felt "very deeply that if after this a European war was still to take place the responsibility for that will not be placed upon the shoulders of Germany".[18]: 315 

In his messages to te Water in the last days of September 1938, Hertzog consistently portrayed Czechoslovakia and France as the trouble-makers, and argued that Britain must do more to apply pressure on those two states for more concessions to Germany.[18]: 3186  Te Water and the Canadian high commissioner in London, Vincent Massey, in a joint note on behalf of South Africa and Canada to Lord Halifax, stated that Sir Basil Newton, the British minister in Prague, should tell the Czechoslovak president Edvard Beneš, that "the obstructive tactics of the Czech government were unwelcome to the British and Dominion governments".[18]: 318  On 28 September 1938, Hertzog was able to get the cabinet to approve his policy of pro-British neutrality subject to parliamentary approval, adding that South Africa would only go to war if Germany attacked Britain first.[18]: 329–330  Given his views, Hertzog very much approved of the Munich Agreement of 30 September 1938, which he regarded as a "just" and "fair" resolution of the German-Czechoslovak dispute.

On September 1st 1939 Hitler invaded Poland, Britain declared war on Germany two days later. A short but furious debate unfolded in South Africa, especially between Smutz and Hertzog. A few days later, the United Party caucus revolted against Hertzog's stance of neutrality in World War II, causing Hertzog's government to lose a vote on the issue in parliament by 80 to 67. Governor-General Sir Patrick Duncan refused Hertzog's request to dissolve parliament and call a general election on the question. Hertzog resigned and his coalition partner Smuts became prime minister. 

Smuts immediately led the country into war.

Hertzog angered formed a coalition with a Dutch Reformist hardliner named Daniel Malan, with his Purified National Party, Purified because they rejected the former coalition with the liberal Smuts.
 They combined to form the Herenigde Nasionale Party, with Hertzog becoming the new Leader of the Opposition. However, Hertzog soon lost the support of Malan and his supporters when they rejected Hertzog's platform of equal rights between British South Africans and Afrikaners, prompting Hertzog to resign and retire from politics.

Immediately, Smuts set about fortifying South Africa against any possible German sea invasion because of South Africa's global strategic importance controlling the long sea route around the Cape of Good Hope.

Future Prime Minister John Vorster, and other members of the pro-Nazi/anti-British group Ossewabrandwag strongly objected to South Africa's participation in World War II and actively carried out sabotage against Smuts' government. Smuts took severe action against the Ossewabrandwag movement and jailed its leaders, including Vorster, for the duration of the war.

Manpower was a constant issue for South Africa, Only White Europeans  were allowed to enlist. Even though the far more Liberal Smuts was in power South Africa’s racial policies were a hinderance to the war effort. Many of the White South African populace vehemently opposed the war and refused to join. Smuts was labeled as a traitor by many of his Afrikaner breatheren

Desperate the government began to draw from the coloured and Indian populations which were amalgamated into the Cape Corps. Eventually out of desperation the government enabled the Native Military Corps a unit of all blacks, but they would only be used for labouring tasks, they were never to be used in combat with European Whites.

The Days of World War 1 although still segregated can show the deteriorating state of Race relations in South Africa. During WW1 the South Africans performed marvelously, even employing large numbers of blacks, Indians and colourds. However the sequal to the great war which would come roughly 20 years later would be far more inconclusive for South Africa. South Africa’s race policies were weaking the state massively.

Take another former colony of the British, Canada, with a population of a little over 11 million in 1939, they had 1 million men serve in the second world war. South Africa with a similar population of 10 million, only a bit over 300,000 were able to enlist, as the descendants of White-Europeans. Many of which were Afrikaner and pro-German.

Field Marshal Jan Smuts was the only important non-British general whose advice was constantly sought by United Kingdom's war-time Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Smuts was invited to the Imperial War Cabinet in 1939 as the most senior South African in favour of war. On 28 May 1941, Smuts was appointed a Field Marshal of the British Army, becoming the first South African to hold that rank. Ultimately, Smuts would pay a steep political price for his closeness to the British establishment, to the King, and to Churchill which had made Smuts very unpopular amongst the Afrikaners, leading to his eventual downfall.

END